Fairfax County School Board Opens Door to Changing School Names

The Fairfax County School Board Thursday night added a sentence to its school-naming policy that opens the door to changing the names of its schools.

There are petitions to change the name of three Fairfax County public schools named for confederates Robert E. Lee High School and J.E.B. Stuart, and segregationist W.T. Woodson.

At its meeting Thursday night, the school board voted unanimously to alter the policy that blocked officials from changing the names of school buildings unless the building was repurposed. The new policy allows the board to also change a name “where some other compelling need exists.”

The sentence in the policy reads:

“The School Board may also consider a change in the name of a school or facility where some other compelling need exists.”

Read: Petition Started to Change Name of Robert E. Lee High School

Fairfax County’s Robert E. Lee High School, located at 6540 Franconia Road in Springfield, is named for Virginian Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general during the U.S. Civil War who has been venerated as a heroic figure in the South. He commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

J.E.B. Stuart High School

In the Falls Church area of Fairfax County, there is also a move afoot to change the name of another Fairfax County school, J.E.B. Stuart High School. Oscar-winning actress Julianne Moore, who attended Fairfax County’s J.E.B. Stuart High School in 1975-1977, and Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen, a 1979 grad, are loaning their support to renewed efforts to rename their high school in Fairfax County.

The two were contacted by an alumni group, who were contacted by students. They want to get rid of the name of the school because J.E.B. Stuart High is name for a Confederate general. The school is located in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County, a suburb in Northern Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

Some graduates of J.E.B. Stuart High had started a petition earlier to change the name. Moore and Cohen joined the cause, launching a new campaign to change the name, that now has more than 34,000 supporters. They’re asking the Fairfax County School Board to change the name from Stuart to Thurgood Marshall High.

“Not only was Marshall the first African American Supreme Court Justice and a civil rights leader, he was our neighbor and a member of our community,” their petition reads.

Read: Oscar-Winning Alumni Push for Change of Confederate Name of High School

Debate over the flag and other Confederate symbols rose in the weeks after Dylann Roof allegedly opened fire on a traditionally black Charleston church, killing nine, on June 17.

Roof was associated with hate groups and had posted pictures of himself with white supremacist symbols, including the Confederate flag.